Описание (английский)
Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located 250 kilometers (160 mi) northeast of Moscow.
The historic part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities northeast of Moscow that have played an important role in Russian history.Yaroslavl is one of the eight cities of Russia's Golden Ring,
a group of touristic, historic towns around Moscow. Yaroslavl is
situated on the north-eastern side of this 'ring' and is the largest
city in its chain. Whilst the city is best known for its architectural
merits, it also has a relatively large repertoire of cultural
attractions.
Despite the effects of the Russian Civil War and a number of air-raids during World War II,
the city of Yaroslavl has managed to retain a great deal of its 17th,
18th and 19th century urban substance. This has helped make the city
recognizable as a monument to the architectural development and style of
the Russian Tsardom. The center of the city, which covers an area of
around 600 hectares has around 140 individual federally-protected
architectural monuments. Since 2005, this ensemble, along with the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery has been included on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Despite all this, there are a number of buildings of architectural merit which are located outside of the city center.The old town is effectively triangular in shape; this triangle is
formed by the natural border provided to the south and east by the Kotorosl and Volga rivers, and on the land side by the geometric pattern of the street plan, which dates from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Constructed in 1506–1516 on the foundations of the original edifice
dating back to 1216–1224. In the 16th century, the first stone wall is
built around the monastery. It is from this monastery that an army of
volunteers led by Minin and Prince Pozharsky set out to liberate Moscow
from Polish invaders. In 1787, the monastery was closed and converted
into a residence of the Yaroslavl and Rostov bishops.
At that time,
monastery buildings began to be reconstructed. New cells and the prior's
chambers were built.The most well-known building in the city is the 'Spaso-Preobrazhensky'
('Transfiguration of the Savior') Cathedral of the Spassky (St Savior)
Monastery (russ. Спасо-Преображенский монастырь).
This monastery was founded in the 12th century and thus it, and its
cathedral, are the oldest buildings in the city. The Transfiguration
Cathedral itself, built in 1516, is the oldest detached building
standing in the city, (Спасо-Преображенский собор).
Typical for a Russian monastery of the Middle Ages, the
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Yaroslavl was not built to be no more
than a place of worship, but also to be a citadel and kremlin
in case, in times of war, there was a need for such a facility. This is
still visible today as the monastery is surrounded by a thick 16th
century, white-painted wall, complete with watchtowers and
embattlements.
Within these walls stand the magisterial churches, which,
with their asymmetrically-ordered towers and beautifully decorated
interiors, make for wonderful examples of traditional Russian sacral
architecture. In addition to this there is a gatehouse church, with
which the monastery's dungeons and treasury were connected. The
monastery has long had a place in the history of Yaroslavl and
continues, albeit nowadays as a museum, to play a significant role in
the life of the city. It was largely thanks to the impregnability of the
monastery that, during the time of the Troubles, the Russian peasants'
army was able to defend the city and then go on to liberate Moscow from
its Polish-Lithuanian occupiers. At the end of the 18th century, the
oldest known text of the Tale of Igor's Campaign,
the most renknowned work of Russian-language literature from the Middle
Ages, was found in the library of the SPaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery.
This masterpiece is now on display as a permanent exhibition within the
monastery, along with other works of the age and an exhibition showing
the conditions an author of the era would have lived in.
The often hectic square which is to be found just beyond the north gate
of the monastery (main gate), is called Bogolavyenskaya Square (Epiphany
Square) (Богоявленская площадь). This name comes from the nearby Epiphany Church (Богоявленская церковь)
which is seated at the south end of the square, near the bank of the
Kotorosl. This church, with its five domes, and traditional Russian
sacral architecture, is a classic example of a medieval Russian church.
However, interestingly, the church has a separate clock-tower which was
built in accordance with the sacral-architectural style of Muscovy in
the years 1684–1693; this all goes to make the church one of the most
noticeable examples of 17th-century architecture in the city. In
addition to this, the beautiful fresco-work inside the church was
carried out by local artists during the building of the church, and has
remained, almost unchanged, to this day.The two streets which lead off Bogolavyenskaya Square to the
north-west are very good examples of the type of urban planning which
was formulated for Yaroslavl in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were
laid out in 1820–1821 as new boulevards to run around the historic city
center and were built on terrain previously occupied by a number of
earthen and wooden fortifications which dated from the 16th century.
There was also a small defensive moat in this area, and after the
infilling of the moat and removal of all other fortifications, the
defensive uses of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery largely
disappeared. This was, in general, not considered to be a great loss, as
the requirement for such earth-works in order to maintain defensive
readiness had long since been surpassed by other methods of securing a
city by the point of their removal. The two municipal watchtowers which
have been retained (the Vassily tower and Volga tower) were both positioned on the city's outer defensive walls which afforded them clear views of oncoming enemy forces.
Within the old defensive limits of the city one can find many other examples of classicism, one important example of which would be the municipal trade rows 'Gostiny Dvor' (Гостиный двор)
– these were built in 1813–1818, not long after the clearing of the
land upon which they now stand. The style of the building, made
noticeable by its many Ionic columns,
is similar to that of many Russian trade rows and market halls built in
the early to mid-19th century, all over the country. This style is also
very complimentary to the 1911-built neoclassical Volkov Theater.
At
the end of Komsomolskaya Boulevard, upon which the trade rows are
located, one finds themselves at 'Volkov Square' (площадь Волкова); where the ring-boulevard makes a slight deviation to the north-eat and carries on towards 'Red Square' (Красная площадь) and the city's Volga embankment. Yaroslavl's Red Square does not have the same etymology as the likewise-named Red Square in Moscow
(the name of which stems from the old-Russian for 'beautiful square'),
rather in Yaroslavl's case, its Red Square was first so-called in the
1920s, and was officially named in honor of the Soviet Red Guards.
There are a number of buildings of historical interest on Red Square,
one of which is the three-story building on the square's north side
which once housed Yaroslavl's 'aristocrat's meeting house' (Дворянское собрание), and is now the main building for the city's 'Demidov' State University. Furthermore, the square is also the location where the city's main fire department can be found; this is contained within a jugendstil
building, built in 1911, and which has a large look-out tower, which
even until the 1970s was actively used by the city's fire brigade.
To the east of the boulevard, within the borders of the former
defensive earthworks, the architecturally-rich 'nucleus' of the old city
is to be found; an area criss-crossed by many narrow, small streets, in
the middle of which one of Yaroslavl's most well-recognized
architectural monuments is to be found.
This is the Church of Elijah the
Prophet (Церковь Илии Пророка), which, in the
same way as the Epiphany Church, is a very prominent example of the way
in which the city developed in the 17th century. Before the completion
of the church which currently stands in 1650, a number of other
predecessor-churches stood on this spot. From these, the oldest dated
back to the foundation of Yaroslavl and the reign of Yaroslav the Wise.
The church, with its five onion domes, is a cross and dome style
church, the architecture of which is typical of Muscovite designs, is
particularly well known for its interior fresco paintings, which,
despite a history which has seen great fires and disasters, have been
kept in good condition. The frescos on the walls and ceilings were
painted by around fifteen experienced artists from Yaroslavl and Kostroma
around the year 1680. It is now clear to see that this complex
collection of beautiful fresco-work is festooned with many references to
the Old Testament.
The square, upon which the church, with its clock tower and neighboring
chapel are situated, was in the early 19th century, according to the
city's urban plan, to be the central square of Yaroslavl and the place
upon which markets and national holidays would take place. Nowadays it
is an area largely reserved for official events, with the other
buildings surrounding the square all belonging to the municipal
administration.
In general the streets of the city center are characterized by the
noticeable mix of classical and sacral architecture.
There are a number
of major public and commercial buildings of architectural merit in the
center of the city, among which are the 1785 'Governmental offices'
building' (Здание присутственных мест) and the
Vakromeyev House, which today houses the Yaroslavl Seminary for young
priests. The Volga embankment is a good example of urban planning in the
classicist style; built in the 1840s, this promenade walk has remained a
favorite place for residents to take a stroll and relax ever since.
The southern part of the city center, around the area where the
Kotorosl and Volga intersect, is an area abundant in green park-like
spaces. Until the 17th century this area was occupied by the wooden
Yaroslavl Kremlin and is thus referred to nowadays as 'Wooden Town' (Рубленый город).
The Kremlin burnt down in 1658 and was never rebuilt. Close by the 1642 Church of Maria (Успенский собор)
stood until its demolition in 1937, however, since 2004 the church was
under reconstruction and was finally opened on 12 September 2010 by Patriarch of Moscow Kirill.
Yaroslavl is the site of the Volkov Theater (built 1750), the oldest theater in Russia, and the Demidovsky Pillar.
The city has many Russian Orthodox churches, one Russian Old Believers church, one Baptist church, one Lutheran church, one mosque and one synagogue.